Mechanical and thermal properties of the glassy semiconductor chlorinated Se0 997As0 003 used as an X-ray imaging material

Abstract

Mechanical and thermal properties of a typical X-ray imaging material amorphous Se0.997As0.003, chlorinated in the ppm range were investigated using thermal microhardness analysis (TμHA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The experiments were carried out over a temperature range encompassing the glass transformation to study the nature of structural changes controlling the mechanical and thermal properties. It is shown that the mechanical property microhardness when examined on an Itoh–Shishokin plot of log Vickers hardness number (VHN) vs. temperature (T) exhibits a hardness transition temperature, Tg*, in the glass transformation region. The rates of relaxation of the mechanical and thermal properties in the glass transformation region were studied by investigating the heating rate dependence of the glass transition temperatures, Tg* and Tg, defined empirically on the log VHN vs. T behavior and the DSC glass transformation endotherm, respectively. By applying the present thermoanalytical methods, it has proved possible to identify a typical Vogel–Tammann–Fulcher type of behavior in the mechanical and thermal relaxation times that correlates remarkably well with the viscosity–temperature data of M. Cukierman and D. R. Uhlmann (J. Non-Cryst. Solids, 12, 199 (1973)) as well as the dielectric loss experiments of M. Abkowitz, D. F. Pochan, and J. M. Pochan (J. Appl. Phys. 51, 1539 (1980)). The latter had previously exposed a Williams–Landel–Ferry relation for the Debye relaxation times in a-Se and a-Se: 1% As. It is therefore concluded that the behavior of mechanical, thermal, and dielectric properties of a-Se0997As0003 in the glass transformation region is inversely proportional to the viscosity, which in turn can be adequately described over a temperature range above ~30 °C by a Vogel expression.